RIP

Saturday, 03 November 2018

Following their long tradition of projects based on narrative themes, The Residents are pleased to announce the release of The Ghost of Hope, an historically accurate album based on train wrecks.
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Dave Rowland, of Dave & Sugar, has died at the age of 74, from an announcement from his publicist at 2911.us. Rowland died on November 1, 2018 in Nashville, due to complications from a stroke.

Dave & Sugar’s early singles (“Queen of the Silver Dollar”, “The Door Is Always Open”, “I'm Gonna Love You” and "Don't Throw It All Away”) were all huge hits for the trio (Dave Rowland, Jackie Frantz, and Vicki Hackeman) in 1975-77.

Their double #1 Country hit songs “Tear Time” and “Golden Tears” proved that the soulful trio became “the country ABBA” as labeled by critics and fans.

Additional details from the death announcement:

Dave Rowland is survived by his wife Terri Rowland, mother Ruby Rowland and sister Donna Fort and her husband Bob, of Palm Desert, Calif., sister-in-law Angie Billis of Nashville, Tenn., niece Vicki Martinka and husband John in Pennsylvania, and nephew Bobby Fowler and wife Belen and their two children in Argentina.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations in the name of Dave Rowland be sent to the Monroe Carrell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn. In 2014, Rowland was honored by the Music City Tennis Invitational in recognition of four decades of event participation with proceeds to benefit the hospital.

Arrangements are pending for a celebration of life service.

ALSO: It happened so quickly that we didn’t get a chance to mention that Hardy Fox from the weird eyeball-band The Residents has died on October 30th. He is survived by his husband, Steven Kloman.

We normally post musician deaths by looking up obituaries, but this recent death of C.W. Vrtacek (born Charles O’Meara) came from experimental electronic music collective Biota (which O’Meara was a member of). O’Meara was 65.

Another recent death is for Canadian rapper Jon James McMurray (recording under the name Jon James), who fell to his death filming a music(?) video! He was 34. According to the story on cfjctoday.com, he was walking on the airplane’s wings when it lost control and he fell. He had a parachute, but failed to release it before ground impact.

Wednesday, 17 October 2018

As expected, fans are divided on the approach that All That Remains have taken on their new album but I think the least anyone could say is that it's a giant step forward from the disaster that was A War You
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Oli Herbert, lead guitarist for All That Remains was found dead in a nearby pond at his Connecticut home, at the age of 44.
Police found him after families reported him missing, so cause of death is still a mystery at this time… according to TMZ.

We caught Oli in All That Remains just over a year ago September 2017 and was impressed by their cover of Garth Brooks’ “The Thunder Rolls”: “Believe me, you haven’t lived until you see bodies surfing to a country song.”

Speaking of unexpected deaths, especially at a young age, is Du Yuwei from the massive 86-girl group GNZ48, who committed suicide from what appears to be a fallout of having an affair with a married man. In these all-girls pop idol groups, the singers have to sign a contract that prevent them from dating (or appears to be taken), so they would appeal to young boys.

It’s just sad to see these young people killing themselves… over just nothing really. Du Yuwei was only 19 years old.

Friday, 14 September 2018

If you live in Minneapolis, you might have already heard that the 400 Bar is closing its doors after seventeen years of operation. They are currently auctioning off memorabilia from the venue via …

Local 400 Bar co-owner, Tom Sullivan died on September 11th, as reported by the Star Tribune. Sullivan was 62.

I moved to Minneapolis in 1999, and the 400 Bar (opened in 1996 by brothers Bill & Tom Sullivan) was one of the very first show that I attended (it was for Momus on 18 November 1999). I wasn't familiar with the area at the time, so I actually got there really early and saw the eye-patching-wearing Momus walking down the street.

In December 2012, the 400 Bar closed its doors at the Cedar location. Eventually, they pop up briefly at the Mall of America in June 2014 (we caught Kate Tucker on 28 July 2014), but everyone agreed that it wasn’t the same 400 Bar.

Tom Sullivan's memorial service will take place at 11 a.m. Monday (Sept 17) at Washburn-McReavy Edina Chapel. In a music-send off, the Gentlemen’s Anti-Temperance League and others will be playing live music at Ballentine Uptown VFW at 5pm.

Finally, finally, I can say "Well, there was this band Crime from San Francisco" and I can actually put it on, and I can say they had as great a lead guitarist as Johnny Thunders, I can say they had singles as impressive as The Dils and The Avengers
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If you like early punk music at all, you’ve probably heard of the San Francisco band Crime (not to be confused with the bands Minneapolis' Crimes or London's Crimea). The singer and guitarist Johnny Strike, has recently died at the age of 70 to cancer.

Mike Stax, longtime friend of the band, argued that the band was beyond punk, writing on
facebook, “I am heartbroken tonight to learn of the passing of a good friend, a great writer and a pioneering rock & roller. Along with Frankie Fix, Johnny was the founding member of CRIME. They recorded what was arguably the first California punk rock single: Hot Wire My Heart / Baby, You're So Repulsive, in 1976. Raw, provocative, and visually and musically spectacular, CRIME transcended punk.”

With only one proper studio album (San Francisco's Doomed) and two official “bootlegs” (Terminal Boredom and Hate Us or Love Us, We Don't Give a F***), the band eventually broke up in the 90s. The group did reform with some changes in the lineup in the 2000s, with a second album, Exalted Masters.

Even though it was probably a crime that Crime never made it big, they sure looked cool trying.

Sunday, 09 September 2018

I might fall from a tall building so Burt Reynolds don't get hurt,
I might leap a mighty canyon so he can kiss and flirt.
While that smooth talker's kissin' my girl I'm just kissin' dirt,
Yes, I'm the lonely stuntman that made a lover out of Burt
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I wasn’t going to mention the death of Burt Reynolds, that is until reader Russell Lichter pointed out that Reynolds actually had a music recording career.

In 1973, Reynolds released the album called Ask Me What I Am. And what’s even funnier is in the review for Jeff Bridges, we wrote in Sep 2011: “Did you know that Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds and Kevin Costner have all released country albums? (Neither did I.)”

I guess when Eastwood or Costner die, we’ll add them to our growing musician death.

Saturday, 08 September 2018

Mac Miller has a great song right now called ‘My Favorite Part’, which featured pop-favorites Adriana Grande singing duet with Miller. The song is taken from his new album The Divine Feminine (Warner Bros. Records).
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News of Mac Miller’s death hit the internet hard at noon on Friday, and celebrities, sport stars, and fans across the country were paying tribute to the rapper. It was unexpected, because Mac Miller was only 26 and in the prime of his career. TMZ reported that it was an apparent overdose. His death came after We Came As Romans’s singer Kyle Pavone (age 28) also died of a drug overdose on August 31.

We caught Mac Miller in October 2016, as part of his The Divine Feminine tour, and said, “Mac Miller only needed a microphone to do his magic. The audience sang back all the popular songs. It’s unlike anything you’ll ever see, over one thousand fans singing and dancing in tune with Miller.”

Sunday, 02 September 2018

I was lucky enough to see an acoustic set in a quirky little pub basement in Darlinghurst, Sydney. Three youngsters from the Sydney-based band Papa Vs Pretty played two of the songs from their new EP, Heavy Harm. ..…

It's always sad to mention that another young musician has recently died: Luke Liang of Papa vs Pretty, has died at the age of 28, according to dailymail.co.uk.

Papa vs Pretty's drummer Tom Myers wrote that Liang lost his life to "depression", which can only mean one thing... that he took his own life.

We wrote about the band in Aug 2010, before Liang joined the group (he joined in 2012), saying, “I was lucky enough to see an acoustic set in a quirky little pub basement in Darlinghurst, Sydney. Three youngsters from the Sydney-based band Papa Vs Pretty played two of the songs from their new EP, Heavy Harm. Heavy on the melody and quite intense lyrically. Foot-tappingly brilliant.”

Saturday, 25 August 2018

We Came As Romans stole the show last night, playing tracks from their latest self-titled album (Equal Vision Records). They had an intense light show that pretty much blinded you at times along with great music.
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Country music has been more appealing to the masses for years, with the lines between country and pop blurring further and bands like The Eagles and Lynyrd Skynyrd easily becoming a part of either genre.
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Kyle Pavone, the singer of We Came As Romans, has died at the age of 28, as reported by cnn.com.

A cause of death was not clear, but Pavone’s sudden death is tragic as they are so young.

We saw the group in October 2015 and wrote, “We Came As Romans stole the show last night, playing tracks from their latest self-titled album (Equal Vision Records).... The crowd never slowed down for WCAR's set and neither did the band members. The amount of energy these guys have is immeasurable. Throughout the hour long set, WCAR had the crowd enthralled in their live show. You didn't have to know their lyrics to feel like you were a part of this band. That is why I feel like these guys stole the show. It didn't matter who you were there to see last night, you stopped what you were doing, stopped the conversation you were in the middle of, put your phones away the second these guys started.”

Also, worth noting is that Ed King, the Hall of Fame guitarist for Strawberry Alarm Clock and Lynyrd Skynyrd, has died at the age of 68 to lung cancer. He’s probably most famous for co-writing the hit song “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Wednesday, 22 August 2018

Khaira Arby and Her Band came on stage dressed in traditional loose-fitting Mali garb with head covering. Even before Arby came on stage, the sound check was pretty awesome, so everyone knew we were in for a treat
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“The Nightingale of Timbuktu” Khaira Arby has died at the age of 59, as confirmed by her family.

japantimes.co.jp wrote “One of a generation of legendary musicians from the ancient northwestern Malian city, Arby became a major voice for peace in her troubled country.”

We saw the Malian singer in July 2011 and said, “So, the first thing that hits you when Khaira Arby sings is that she has an amazing voice. It's loud and it's powerful. Singing style, for some reason, I found it to sound very similar to Indian (East Asia), but sung in French and Bambara.”